Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
by spaceball1997
Summary: 40 years after the defeat of the Empire, the New Republic has begun to crumple due to constant conflict. Now the Galactic Alliance, led by Darth Caedus, has taken control, prompting numerous star systems to secede. Now old heroes and new must unite to restore peace and defeat the Sith once and for all. This is for fans who prefer the old canon over the new one.
1. Chapter I: Force Awakens

Star Wars

Episode VII

The Force Awakens

A Galaxy divided! The NEW REPUBLIC has been overthrown by the GALACTIC ALLIANCE under the rule of the Sith Lord, Darth Caedus, and has plunged the galaxy into a reign of terror.

To escape the Alliance's rule, numerous star systems including the planet of Corellia, have begun to secede, and together they form the CONFEDERATION, now led by Grand Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.

With their numbers dwindling, Luke and his sister Leia Organa have dispatched two of their best pilots to Dantooine, where they hope to find the key to stop the Alliance and restore peace to the galaxy….


	2. Chapter II: Battle over Dantooine

Chapter II: Battle over Dantooine

The night sky over Dantooine at first seemed calm and peaceful. With the light of the two moons and the stars. However, a shadow that the shape of a giant dagger began to block out that light. Jagged had imagined how the people on the surface would think seeing the shape of an Alliance Star Destroyer. He pushed that into the back of his mind when a wave of TIE Fighters began to approach his position. He pushed down the throttle on his X-wing giving it a boost of speed, ready for a fight.

"Jaina, you copy?" he said.

"I copy, Jagged," said a voice coming from his comm link, which he knew as his close friend Jaina. He felt a little jealous that he was piloting an X-wing while she was piloting the famous Corellia freighter, the Millennium Falcon. Made famous by the General Han Solo.

"TIEs incoming, we need to ready the squadron, and push these thugs back." he said.

"With pleasure. Rogue Squadron, lock s-foils and attack position!" she commanded.

Then all the X-wings around them reshaped their wings from an l to an x, and all reported ready to face the enemy.

"This is where the fun begins," Jaina said.

Then the two groups of fighters collided and started blasting their cannons towards each other. Chatter and yelling erupted over Jagged's comm. He could hear various phrases like "TIE down" or "get this fighter off my tail". He was able to stay focused thanks to his extensive training, courtesy of his father. How ironic he thought, how his father served in the Imperial academy and would become the father of one the best pilots in the Republic.

At first, Rogue Squadron seemed to have the upper hand. The X-wings in combination with a few A-wings were able to fend off the TIE fighters, but after a couple minutes of intense dogfighting Jagged spotted another type of craft, and immediately recognized what it was.

"Oh, no. TIE Defenders. Rogue Squadron take evasive action!" he yelled over his comm. He then heard a voice over all the incoming blaster. It was Fedrelan, one of the rookie pilots. He was from Mon Calamari, so he naturally sided with the Confederation due to his world's hate for the old Empire, and he was personally eager to fight.

"They're over me! Help..." Fedrelan said before the link cut.

"I'll help him," Jaina said. She began to turn the Falcon toward Fedrelan's position. She then commanded her gunners to fire on the Defender, because the Falcon of course had turrets with a 360 field of view.

"I'm hit! Hel..." Fedrelan yelled, but then was cut. Jaina and Jagged knew what that meant. "Jagged, the Defenders are too much. We need to hold position and defend our cruiser," Jaina said.

"No, we need to get rid of that Destroyer, or else we aren't getting out of this system," he responded.

"We have trainees in our squad, we can't turn them into cannon fodder."

"They knew what they signed..." Jagged was then cut off by a Defender which flung right past him nearly clipping his wing. "Ok, they're getting on my nerves, you may be right."

"Well, then let's get to work." she replied. She then saw another Defender coming around to chase them, along with some TIE interceptors. "Robb, you know you can shoot back anytime!" she yelled at one of her gunners.

"I know, but this thing is so hard to control," Robb said frustrated.

Jaina began to get frustrated herself. "Why did I bring these guys with me?" she asked under her breath. Robb had over four months of training and he can handle blasters but can't man a cannon.

To Jaina's left, Jagged was being pursued by two interceptors. BB-8, Jagged's droid beeped in terror hoping to warn his master of the threat behind him. "Don't worry, I see them," Jagged said hoping to create some reassurance. "Cut the engines BB-8, I got an idea." BB-8's astromech head started flinging around his spherical body and beeped in confusion. "Just do it!" Jagged said.

The engines on Jagged's X-wing stopped, and he then spun his ship like a halo, and before BB-8 or the interceptors knew it, he was behind them now. He then shot them both in the rear in quick succession.

"See, we got them," Jagged said with a grin. The droid then beeped as a reply.

Jagged then spotted the Millennium Falcon near the hull of their Mon Calamari cruiser. It looked as though Robb and the other gunner, Timiria, were able to fight off the pursuers. "See, just point and shoot," Jaina said all smuggish.

"Is it just me, or are veterans of the Yuuzhan Vong War always as annoying as a Kowakian monkey-lizard?" Robb said.

"It's just you," Timiria said.

Jagged began to grin at the chat between his squad until he turned his head forward and noticed a third ship that had just jumped out of hyperspace. It was about the size of a frigate, and its bow had the form of a giant claw. The design was enough to make Jagged realize what it was, and why he should be nervous. "Guys, we have a problem!" he said as calmly as he could.

"What's up?" Jaina asked.

"The Alliance just brought in a suncrusher!"


	3. Chapter III: Boarding Party

Chapter III: Boarding Party

"Please, tell me you are joking!" Jaina says nervously. Jaina and Jagged know that a suncrusher is a weapon that leaves little to no witnesses. So details about them, except for rumors. How it has quantum-crystalline armor that allowed it to collide with a dreadnought and take no damage, and it firepower that would make the Death Star seem like a toy. Rather than simply being to destroy a planet, it can cause an entire star to go supernova and take the star system with it. This was made capable by the ship's resonance torpedo which would destroy the star's core after passing through the star's surface at lightspeed. Suncrushers are rare, and the times the resonance torpedoes have been used is even more so. But it was hard to tell when the user wasn't in a bad mood.

"No, it just jumped out of hyperspace," Jagged responded. "Confederate cruiser, an Alliance suncrusher just showed showed up, prepare a retreat now!"

Before Jagged could get a response, the enemy ship thrust through the X-wings and A-wings, blasting them all to pieces, and then collided with the hull of the cruiser, and stuck to it like a knife to a piece of meat. Jagged knew that the crew on the suncrusher were most likely to start a boarding of the ship. He and some the other pilots could see that the collision was causing the cruiser to begin losing power, and the all their comms were bursting with chatter from those on the cruiser.

"Crap, what do we do?" Jaina asked. Then she and Jagged could hear Commander My'ar, the Bothan leader of their cruiser requesting assistance.

He yelled, "All pilots, converge on the starboard hangar and defend it from the Alliance boarding party!"

"Jaina, I'll take care of this, you stay out here and make sure no Alliance shuttles try to join in on the fun," Jagged said.

Before giving a response, she gave a frustrated groan. "Whatever you say," she said back.

Jagged flew aboard the hangar through the shield, which allowed him to travel through them due to his friendly signature. He saw that a firefight was already taking shape inside, and the Alliance troops had been able to push his allies back the first blast door. Most of the Alliance infantry were stormtroopers from the Imperial Remnant, but it also included regular infantry ranging from Human to Chiss. He put his craft in hover mode and tried to take many of them out with his cannons. However, he was quickly shot out of the air when the enemy fired a rocket in his direction and caused him to strafe into the wall and crash onto the ground.

After crashing, Jagged and BB-8 quickly exited the X-wing, where the pilot saw that his barrage didn't seem to change much. He realized that this wasn't going to end well. They both took cover behind the X-wing's wreckage, where he reached for his wrist comm while BB-8 buzzed excitedly hoped to help Jagged come up with a plan to get them out the mess they were in the middle of.

"Hey, uh, Jaina, my ship just got shot down. Do you mind coming over to the hangar to pick us up?" he requested over the blaster fire.

"But what about 'make sure the shuttle don't join the fun'?" she asked.

"Forget about it, what's important is that we get the star map back to base. We can call for help on the surface."

"Sorry, I can't. I got a lot of..." then her signal went static.

"Jaina? Come in! Jaina!" he got no response. "For the love of..." he then started to fire back at the enemy, but what he got was a return volley of blaster fire, which was so fierce, it nearly tore apart his cover. He reached back to his wrist comms and yelled, "Admiral, I lost contact with Rogue 1, and the Alliance is overwhelming us, we need to abandon ship NOW!"

"Are you crazy Fel?! We can't just retreat in the face of battle!" My'ar said.

"Stupid Bothans," Jagged said under his breath, "I think our lives are more important than our honor!" he said trying to create a window for him to move to a better piece of cover.

"Maybe if you humans would try to fight your battles, I would trust your kind more."

"Well, you'll never become grand admiral if you keep this up." Then, Jagged heard the engines of an Alliance shuttle arriving. This resembled a Imperial shuttle but lacked the dorsal wing, and was painted black instead of light grey. "BB-8, you need to get out of here." The droid responded with a brief beep and whistle. "You need to find Jaina. I think I know where she is. Find a pod and get to the planet surface." the droid beeped again. "I need to help evacuate the ship," he was met with another beep. "Don't worry, I'll see down there," before finishing, he leaned in closer, "we'll be alright."

BB-8 obeyed his master and began rolling to the blast door where the Confederate troops were pinned down. Jagged knew that if Jaina was shot down on the planet, she would need a droid to help her get the star map to Master Skywalker. He then decided to hold out on shooting back because he didn't want to attract the attention of who had just arrived on the shuttle, and best case scenario he thought he could probably steal the shuttle after they exit it. He did have training with old Imperial starcraft.

Jagged turned to the defensive area his allies had set and noticed they had all started running for their lives. He turned to try to spot what they were running from. As it turns out, his suspensions were correct.

Darth Caedus had arrived on the shuttle.


	4. Chapter IV: Darth Caedus

**Author's Note: I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to read and like my story. I am personally on the pro-legends bandwagon and I want the old Star Wars story and everything outside the movies to get the credit they deserve. My goal is to retell the Force Awakens with characters and plots line from Legends, and hopefully direct more attention to Legends. I mean, come on, Jacen Solo Kylo Ren and Jaina Solo Rey (Solo).**

Chapter IV: Darth Caedus

He had walked down the ramp of the shuttle like a king walking down his steps to execute a criminal. He was dressed in black cloth and leather, with a simple cape and a belt to holster his lightsaber. And even thought he was a Sith, he was surprising clean and husband. He was tall, imposing, and had a fancy haircut. He seemed like a man any girl would want to be with. If it wasn't for his constant frowl which could probably scare even a gundark. He continued to march toward the position of the Confederate troops as if he was oblivious to everything that had happened. Even when his troops greeted him with a bow, and an address of "Lord Caedus", he continued to walk right past them all. When he passed the blast door, his troops began to empty the hangar and follow him to his likely destination. The bridge.

It seemed as though the Alliance had forgotten that Jagged was still behind the X-wing wreckage, or maybe they were just so concerned with the Sith Lord's presence. Jagged saw his window and approached the shuttle with the safety on his blaster rifle still off. He remained in a crouched stance and moved between every piece of cover that he could see in his path, still cautious about drawing attention. He had hoped that he could help the crew escape, but now that Caedus was here, the chances of that seemed rather slim.

Jagged arrived at the doorstep of the ship, and was about to enter, when the ramp suddenly began to raise to close the entrance. He stared at the craft puzzled, but was snapped out of his confusion by a blaster bolt that nearly hit his head. He turned his head, and saw that the Sith and his minions had turned around, now realizing that they had missed a spot in their cleansing of the ship.

Jagged quickly turned his blaster in their direction and aimed it at Caedus. Hoping to cut off the head of the snake, he fired a bolt towards the Sith. However, Caedus raised his hand up, and bolt aimed at him suddenly froze in place. Before, Jagged could react to Caedus's display of power, he noticed that he was frozen too.

Jagged was then lifted off the floor and was pulled towards his frozen bolt. He began to freak out as the burning plasma beam approached him inch by inch. But he was suddenly hurled over the bolt and landed flat on his back. He looked up and noticed that the beam of light now above him, began to turn the right, and was launched at its prior trajectory and blew into a collection of sparks after making contact with the wall of the hangar.

Just as began to push himself back to his feet, Jagged got tackled by two stormtroopers, with the impact sending him back onto his back. The men proceeded to grip his arms and drag their new prisoner to the hall they had just come from. Their less than friendly escort continued until Jagged was on his knee at the mercy of Darth Caedus.

Nervousness rushed through Jagged staring up at Caedus's face. His mind then started brainstorming something to say. Maybe he should act friendly, or throw an insult, or something. He knew that users of the dark side could be unpredictable, so he struggle to decide what would be his best next course of action.

"Search him," Jagged heard the Caedus say. He sounded rather calm but had plenty of authority of his speech. He was raised by the stormtroopers back to eye level, where he then felt the two troopers forcefully pat various parts of his body, searching for something valuable.

One trooper then patted below Jagged belt, which was not a pleasant feeling. "Enjoying yourself, pal?" he said smirkly. The trooper in question turned his head in Jagged's direction, but due to his faceless helmet, he couldn't spot a facial or verbal reaction. The other trooper turned to Darth Caedus and told him that Jagged was clean.

Caedus kept his eye on his prisoner, but began to continue his march to the bridge with his frowl present. By the time Jagged and the two stormtroopers could see only his back, he raised his hand and gave a gesture that said, "bring him." Jagged was then yanked by the troopers and was forced to follow them down the hall.

* * *

Jagged had started to lose balance due to the stormtroopers' constant dragging of his body. So much so that he almost felt relief when his captors finally reached the bridge. And then the stress returned to him when he saw two Alliance troops dragging My'ar to Darth Caedus. They at first tried to bring the Bothan to his knees, but he resisted. When one of them attempted to strike him, Caedus gestured for him to stay his hand. Jagged observed My'ar's face, and saw he was remaining as calm as he could, but he could still see a glimpse of fear in the Commander's eyes. Jagged didn't really blame him. He was face to face with the leader of the Galactic Alliance and the official head of the Sith Order, and he had the power to make his enemies experience suffering unlike anything else in the galaxy. My'ar's only hope was to yield to the Sith.

"So, you chose war as well," Caedus said, still frowning and with a low and frightening tone in his voice.

"You forced my people's hand, my lord," My'ar responded. Jagged still had no idea what his play was.

"You know what I've come for."

"I know where you come from. Before you called yourself 'Darth Caedus'."

"The starmap to the Jedi Temple. The last piece that Skywalker is looking for. We know that you found it, and planning to deliver it to the Jedi. But now you will give to the Alliance. The true authority in the galaxy."

"The Alliance has been consumed by the dark side. Just like you."

"Since when does an insignificant Bothan understand the dark side?"

"When his duty requires him to. And I too understand that even you cannot deny the truth. You cannot deny your family." Jagged knew that he was now doomed.

Caedus for the first time smiled. But was more like a smirk. "You're so right." He then ignited his lightsaber displaying its cross-guard design, followed up by a swing that cut My'ar's head clean off his shoulders.

The imagery of the Bothan's execution caused a rush of adrenaline in Jagged that pushed him in Caedus's direction. His charge was then halted by a hard strike to his gut by the stormtrooper to his left. The strike almost knocked the wind of him, and did knock him down to knee. All he could see was My'ar's body behind the blade of Caedus's lightsaber. It sported a red glow, and the blade seemed unstable, as if it was going to blow up. Caedus turned to Jagged, and then ordered the prisoner to his feet. The stormtroopers began to lift Jagged up, by then the Dark warrior held up his hand, gesturing them to stop.

"Think you can strike me down. Come on. On your feet," Caedus said. Jagged looked up, confused at the Sith's command.

"I said, ON YOUR FEET!" Caedus repeated, with a boost in volume. Jagged obeyed, and worked his way up to a standing position, exchanging grim expressions with Caedus. "Get him out of my sight," Caedus ordered. The stormtroopers grabbed their prisoner's arms and started their trip back to the star destroyer.

As Jagged was dragged out of the command center, a Chiss Alliance officer asked Caedus, "My lord, what of the rebels who surrendered?"

The Confederate officers who were captured on the bridge looked towards their captors, anxious for the Dark Lord's reply. Caedus looked around at them, and let out a deep exhale before giving his next order.

"Return them to the ship. Salvage anything you can," he began to walk down the hall back to the hangar and then said, "any who resist, kill them."

One by one, the Confederate soldiers and officers were transported onto shuttles taking them to the Star Destroyer. They organized into several lines, connected by taser-binders to prevent escape. Anyone who attempted to flee were brutally electrocuted, but only enough to torture them without killing them.

One Alliance officer responsible for overseeing their transport yelled, "Look around scum. You failed your homeworld, and you betrayed the government that provided for you during your most desperate hour. And now millions will die in your name! But after we are done with you slime, you will have no name. You will be servants of the New Order!"


	5. Chapter V: A Not So Happy Landing

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry about the delay guys, but having a job and getting ready for college at the same time is difficult stuff. But I finally got this chapter done, even if there is still much more to go. Since this chapter is mostly about Jaina, let me know, who is your favorite Female Star Wars character. Is it Leia, Padme, Mara Jade, Ahsoka, Bastilla, Tenel Ka, or Jaina.**

Chapter V: A Not So Happy Landing

At first everything seemed to be shrouded in darkness, until a faint light emerged from the corner of Jaina's eyes. Then both her vision and memories from the past couples of hours began to return to her. She realized that she was still inside the bridge of the Millennium Falcon, and the impact of what was assumedly a crash landing onto the surface of Dantooine left her out cold in the pilot's seat.

As her strength returned to her as well, Jaina pulled herself upward to get a look through one of the Falcon's many windows. When she did, she saw it was indeed Dantooine. She could tell from the bright sun and the yellow grass. It wasn't much, but she was thankful that it wasn't a barren desert world like Tatooine. Plus, from what she knew she about the planet, the locals were mostly farmers and humble merchants, so she knew not to expect Jawas, Tusken Raiders, or the Hutts who were most likely still upset about Lord Jabba's death.

Knowing that she wasn't going to improve her current predicament by staying seated inside the freighter, Jaina tried to pull herself out of the pilot's chair and onto her feet. Her legs started wobbling by the time she got out of the seat. To keep herself standing, she grabbed hold of one of the consoles on the wall to keep her balance. When she regained her composure, she let go the console to give her legs a chance, which seemed to work. She was standing up right. She took her first step toward the exit, but the result was her tumbling down onto the floor. The sting of the impact frustrated Jaina. To express her irritation, she struck the floor and let out a growl.

Desperate to get out of the Falcon, she resorted to crawling out, which would be slow, but at least she would actually make progress. By the time she reached the main exit that take her to the outside, Jaina knew that one way or another she needed to start walking. She made another attempt to push herself up to her feet. It turned out to be quite a struggle for her. She was tired, hurt, hungry, and dehydrated, leaving her with barely any energy to pull her weight. She pulled herself halfway until falling back down.

This caused her to get even more frustrated. "Poodoo," she said angrily. "Stuck in a crashed ship, stranded on a system with pretty much no cities, and my friend is captured, most likely dead. Yeah, great start Jaina." Then she got nervous, "oh great. Talking to myself. There's a sign." Without a second thought, she again attempted to stand up. This time, she made it to her feet, though the pain was still present. She repeatedly struck her legs hoping to get some feeling back into them. "Now we're getting somewhere," she said.

Jaina opened the cargo door, and saw that the Falcon was indeed leaning, but she was relieved to see that it was tipped in the opposite direction. This way she wouldn't get trapped inside. She climbed up the ramp, followed by a leap to the yellow soil of the planet. She land on her feet, but the impact of the fall sent her right back down onto her back. The pain she felt was quickly followed by irritation that she couldn't stay standing for more than two minutes.

"Come on," she said gritting her teeth.

Jaina had spent at least an hour wandering through the grasslands of Dantooine in search of civilization, though her search has been proven rather fruitless. She tried to prepare as she could before her journey, bringing one of the blaster pistols from the ship's armory with her, and she also left her black jacket in the ship. She may get a little sunburnt with only a tank top on, but at least she wouldn't suffocate. She had hoped that the climate would cool down eventually, but from what it looked like, the rumors about drought in the northern hemisphere were true, and she was stuck in the middle in the middle of it.

"Come on, building. People. Something," Jaina said. She then felt a growl coming from her stomach. This made her feel stupid. She wasn't expecting to be stranded after a crash landing. She was the best pilot in the Confederate Starfleet. She was expecting a clean mission followed by a good meal and a equally good-night's sleep upon her return to the fleet.

"So much for ' _Trickster Goddess_ '," Jaina said before, collapsing to her knees. How could the girl who was so good with ships that mindless monsters like the Yuuzhan Vong who wanted to do worse than kill her worshipped her as a god, was now left with nothing, except for just a small bit of fortitude.

Depression and hopelessness was on the verge of consuming Jaina, until she heard beeping in the distance. The noise pushed her head back up straight.

"Please tell me that's what I think it is," she said suddenly energetic, as if she was awoken from a deep slumber by a very loud bell.

Relief ran through her body when she caught sight of BB-8, letting out a deep exhale. However, when the droid rolled up to her, he continued to roll until he was beside her back. She was confused. For one thing how did he get down here, and why did he seemed to want to hide behind her. He must have commandeered an escape pod, like R2-D2 did year ago.

"Hey buddy, what's wrong?" she said.

BB-8 responded with a beep and leaning his head in the direction where he came from. She turned to see what he was "pointing" at. When she did, she noticed why the droid was hiding behind her.

It turns out that BB-8 was being chased by what looked like three Weequay scavengers.

"Oh no," Jaina said as they closed in on her. Before she could get back to her feet to defend herself, one of the scavengers struck her in the gut so hard, she could barely breathe afterwards. She tumbled back onto her side, where she saw BB-8 trying to escape, but was quickly snatched by the second scavenger. The Weequay proceeded to chatter amongst themselves in their native language, likely deciding what to do with Jaina and BB-8. The third scavenger more demanding tone gave Jaina the impression that he was the leader of the trio. However, the one who punched Jaina seemed to not be so fond of the leader, which caused the two to get into an intense argument while the last one was trying to keep BB-8 restrained. With the three of them distracted, Jaina believed that now was her window to escape. She knew that it would mean leaving BB-8 behind, but she had very little choice.

She began to crawl away, hoping that the Weequay wouldn't notice her getting away, at least until she was able to find a piece of cover to hide behind. Fortunately, it looked as though she was in an area with plenty of hills. Even though she was able to crawl a few feet away, her moans of pain gave her away. Her heart sank when she heard the Weequay leader yell, likely ordering the other two the stop her. After hearing the yell, she then felt the sting of a kick to her sternum. The pain was so overwhelming she could barely move. She saw that the second scavenger put BB-8 in some sort of net. She knew that the net likely meant that the scavengers were planning on selling him for spare parts. Her situation seemed even more hopeless when she heard the other two Weequay start laughing. Their evil-sounding laughter was followed by a yank at the back of Jaina's shirt, then at her boots. Knowing what the Weequay were planning to do, she burst into a frenzy, swinging her arms and legs, screaming at the top of her lungs.

The mayhem then came to a halt with the sound of another voice. This time, the voice belongs to a young human boy. Must have been around the age of 14 or 15. He too was speaking in the Weequay native tongue, with just as much ferocity as the head scavenger.

Jaina had studied a couples of language during her training, but Weequay was not one of them. But she could tell that the boy was not hostile to her. She turned her head to face him, trying to observe him as he approach. She noticed that he was rather fit for a teenager, and his hair was flaming-orange. Plus, she saw that he was carrying a blaster pistol in his hand.

The three scavengers then responded with yelling of their own, and now the boy and the scavengers were in an argument of their own. It looked as thought the Weequay had the advantage, because it was three against one and that one, was a teenage boy. However, silence followed when the boy fired his blaster barely an inch from the feet of the first scavenger, resulting in him leaping back in sudden fright. The boy yelled again, causing the first two to back up however the last one stayed firm. He marched toward the boy, but was met with yet another blaster bolt nearly an inch from his toe. This caused him to join the other two in allowing the boy to have authority over the standoff. The boy yelled one more time, and this time, the scavengers retreated with clear frustration in the posture.

When they were far enough away, the boy approached Jaina and BB-8, crouching down to tend to her.

"Come on, I'll take you to my house," he said. He lifted her up to her feet, leaving her wonder if he was trustworthy, or if he was a liar taking her into a trap. However, she didn't really have much a choice.

"Who were they?" Jaina asked, after taking a sip of blue milk that the boy gave to her after reaching his "house". She was expecting it to not be as nice looking as the penthouse she used to have on Coruscant before the war, but she still couldn't help but be a little disappointed by the fact that she was taking refuge in a farmer's home.

"Teeno and his two goons. They apparently also crash landed here, and now they look for anything metal to use to build a ship." he responded. Jaina was impressed. He was clearly younger than her, and yet he seemed like someone who could handle himself.

"They can do that?"

"Of course not. Weequay are tough, but not as bright. They also get a little lonely."

Jaina tried to adjust her body to a more comfortable position on the couch that she was given as a bed. This caused a slight sting in her ribcage, which she responded with a soft groan.

"Here," he handed her some sort of potion. "It will help with the pain." Before drinking the presumed medicine, she looked up to the farmboy. She now wanted to be upfront with him.

"So...why did you help me?"

"You were in trouble. I help those who are trouble."

"How noble of you." She was thankful that even people who aren't Jedi are willing to go out of their way to help those in need, but she couldn't help but feel that there was more to it than that. "What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't recognize me, Jaina," he responded. "It's me, Ben. Your cousin."

"Ben?" she said, both confused and surprised at the same time.

He nodded his head. "Good to see you again, Jaina."

"Oh, Ben," she thrusted forward to embrace him, which caught him a little off guard. He said almost nervously, "Oh, oh okay." Realizing that her relief was a little too much she released him, and laid back down on the bed. She felt a little stupid for not recognizing him at first. He had the same flaming orange hair, and he looked around 15 or 16.

"I don't understand. Why are you still down here. I thought you and Aunt Mara were heading back to the ship with the rest of us," she said.

"Long story short. It blew up. Me and mother got stuck down here, so we figured, might as well help the people of this planet as much as we can before someone comes to get us. I don't understand something either. Why didn't you recognize me? I know there are plenty of boys with orange hair who want to help someone like you with something in the galaxy but still, couldn't you just sense who I was?" he asked.

"No, my link to the force has been cut. Looks like all of Luke's training was for nothing."

"Still doesn't explain why someone like Jaina Solo would crash the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy on a place like this."


	6. Chapter VI: Just Like Old Times

**Author's Note: Thank you all again for your support of my story. Hopefully together we will someday overthrow the evil empire known as Disney. And just to remind you, this is for the most part an adaptation, but I will be taking some liberties with the story to fit within a film format, and because of some cool story ideas that I came up with myself.**

Chapter VI: Just Like Old Times

The rooftop of a tall Corellian skyscraper may have been a little impractical but it was one of the few places on the planet that provided Luke with enough solitude to be able to meditate. The snowy mountains in the distance were a comforting sight for him, and he was hoping that everyday he would have enough time to perform his Jedi exercises and find solace in the force. He remembered from his training with Obi-Wan and Yoda, that Jedi must be able to control their emotions, because emotion can make any force-wielder, no matter how powerful, vulnerable to the dark side. However, Luke knew that whatever code his masters followed wasn't entirely trustworthy. Back when Luke established the Jedi Temple on Yavin 4, he found old records of how the Old Jedi Order would train their padawans. He was able to piece some of them together until the code was complete, which states:

 _There is no emotion, there is peace_

 _There is no ignorance, there is knowledge_

 _There is no passion, there is serenity_

 _There is no chaos, there is harmony_

 _There is no death, there is the Force_

Luke knew that the last part was true, because of his ability to speak to the deceased, which included his father, Anakin, and his master Obi-Wan. Plus, the second and fourth part were definitely traits of Jedi and not Sith. The first and third parts were what got Luke thinking. He has emotion, he has passion, and peace has been in short supply during his lifetime. Yet he remains a Jedi, even though he has come close to turning to the dark side several times.

He was always curious why Obi-Wan and Yoda never trained him using this code. His father, Anakin, had just previously become Darth Vader and destroyed most of the order. They would likely want to keep such an important part of their history from fading out of memory. But then he remembered his last discussion with Obi-Wan before he "left". He said, "you are not the last of the Jedi, you are first of the new."

He has carried those words with him ever since. When he began rebuilding the Jedi Order, he decided that he would teach the new generation of Jedi using both the teachings of his former masters and the few couple of lessons he learned himself that have seemed to work.

One major lesson that Luke was taught that he would keep with him was one that Yoda gave to him on Dagobah. When the Jedi master told him, "Beware the dark side, anger, fear, aggression, the dark side are they." He had first hand experience of what effect those emotions could bring.

Perhaps the biggest change Luke made was the rules of love. Instead of being a handicap, he viewed it as a building block. Luke was a Jedi, sworn to protect the innocent, and maintain peace throughout the galaxy, but it would never change the fact that he loved his sister, his wife Mara, his son, and everyone else who shared his blood.

Luke was then interrupted from his lecture with himself by a call in the force. He recognized it as the beeps and whistles of R2-D2, his astromech companion. That must have been a cue for him to join his sister, Leia, at the war council meeting. Using the force, he climbed down to the nearest window from the rooftop with ease. Through the open window, he entered his guest room that the people of Corellia offered him due to his status as the Grand Master of the Jedi Coalition. By the door, he spotted R2, who was shaking in joy at the sight of Luke. R2 always amused Luke because of his cheerful nature.

"Hey, R2, did Leia send you?" Luke asked.

"Goodness, Master Luke, I was hoping I'd find you here," came another voice. The voice belonged to C-3P0, Leia's golden protocol droid and interpreter.

"3P0," Luke said with equal amount of amusement and annoyance in his voice. 3P0 always seemed to appear at the most awkward of times. "What are you doing here?" he asked the droid.

"Princess... uh, Senator Leia was hoping you would join her in meeting with the ambassadors. She sent me to inform you of such."

Before Luke could respond, R2 turned his head to face 3P0 and beeped something. Since 3P0 was an interpreter, only he could translate R2's beeps into the common dialect. "Oh, you were informing him of the meeting already," he responded, with a shift in tone to something more depressed. Luke always found it rather humorous how R2 and 3P0 were constantly trying to outdo each other. "Forgive me, Master Luke, if I am taking up your time."

"3P0, it's okay. You can accompany R2 and I to the meeting," Luke said very politely.

"Oh thank you, Master Luke. I've heard that walking with friends is an effective bonding method." R2 beeped something else to 3P0. "R2-D2, I was trying to lighten the mood in this time of war."

When Luke reached the war room near the top of the neighboring skyscraper, he noticed that the meeting had already started. I could hear Leia's voice, being as feisty as always.

"The Alliance still outnumber and outgun us," said Thrackan Sal-Solo, the Head of State of Corellia and Minister of War.

"We have defeated the Alliance at Centerpoint Station and at Tralus. Now is the time to press our offensive," Leia exclaimed.

Leia was then met with another voice. Instead of Sal-Solo, it belonged to Turr Phennir, the Confederation's Supreme Commander. "The Core Worlds are still too heavily fortified. To even capture one of the border systems, we need more men." Leia was surprised to hear something like that from the man who founded the Confederation.

"Who? If any system hasn't already sided with us, they have likely sided with the Alliance," Leia responded. "Most of the Jedi Order including my brother, Luke Skywalker are allied with us, and if my time in the senate has proven anything, war causes the members of leadership to start turning on each other."

"Not with Darth Caedus as chancellor. He has proven himself a mighty military leader, and he can demand loyalty. He was able to unite the Republic and the Imperial Remnant under one banner," said Sal-Solo.

"He is a fool to trust the Imperials. They will betray him first chance they get."

Luke then decided to step into the argument. "You both have valid points." He stepped forward onto the stage in the middle. The room reminded Luke of the main Senate Chamber on Coruscant, but much more humble and enclosed. "It is risky to not push into the interior and allow the Alliance to regroup," he turned to Leia and received a small smile from her, "but our first priority should be the lives of our people," he turned to Kal-Solo, who looked rather surprised, along with a few other representatives. "This is what separates us from the Alliance, from the Sith, from the dark side."

Luke knew that his statement was going to be unpopular with Leia, especially when he turned back to face her, noticing her face change to a much more grim expression. She looked as though she wanted to throw him in a Sarlacc Pit. Leia never really liked when Luke or Han disagreed with her, especially in political matters.

"Excellent. It looks like Master Skywalker shares our conservative stance." said Phennir. "We'll deploy our fleets to frontier systems friendly to us, and contact our allies on Adumar to secure more weapons to..." He was then cut off by a representative of the Gotals.

"May I remind you that Skywalker is the son of a Sith," he said in his native tongue. "And the former Master of Darth Caedus." The whole room fell silent. The statement caused a fuel of anger to grow in Leia, as she clinched her fists. She may not have training with the force, but she could still sense that Luke felt the same way, but not as intensely. Leia stepped forward and opened her mouth to begin berating the Gotal for his comment, before Luke stepped in front of her and spoke first.

"That is in the past," he said as calmly as he could.

"A past cursed by Vader and the Empire."

"The dark side hasn't claimed me or my sister, and it couldn't keep hold of my father. We…" he too was interrupted by Kal-Solo.

"Thank you, Master Skywalker," he said, likely wanting to avoid another verbal skirmish, especially between a Jedi and a representative from a smaller than average system. "Ladies and gentleman, I think that is enough for one day. I call this meeting adjourned. Please report to your assignments if given, and the rest prepare for our next meeting, we will discuss relations with major systems in the Southern Outer Rim. Dismissed," he said. As the crowd emptied the room, Luke and Leia took the opportunity to separate themselves from the rest of the assembly to speak privately. After exiting, the two walked down the hall until they spotted what looked like an isolated room on the side of the hall. When they arrived, Leia grabbed her brother's shoulder, and pushed him inside with all her might. Despite staggering, he remained on his feet. He wasn't exactly surprised.

"What were doing in there!?" she yelled.

"I was trying to help you see the better path, and them as well," he said.

"Of course," she started to really lose her temper. "Because your Jedi ways make you care about those people you'll never meet more than…" she paused, "him."

"I miss him too," Luke's tone became even more grim. "But we'll stop him if we turn half of our forces into cannon fodder."

"Great. I...I…" Leia began to break down. Luke, in an effort to comfort her, gave her as warm an embrace as he could. He could feel her burying her face into his chest. "I don't want to lose you too." she said.

"You won't," Luke responded. Leia lifted up her head to face her brother.

"Then we need to trust each other. If the assembly sees us disagreeing on matters like this, they'll think we're divided. And appearing divided makes us appear weak," she said. "That's something we can't afford right now. Not with these people."

"Leia," Luke gulped, hoping that what he said next wouldn't make his sister erupt. "I will always love you. But it is my duty to defend the innocent before battling the enemy."

"Who is the enemy, Luke?" she countered. "We are traitors in the eyes of the Alliance, and even if we win the war, Sal-Solo and his buddies outside will most likely want us out of the picture." They knew that both sides were corrupt in their own unique way. The Alliance hated the Jedi for siding with the Confederation, and Confederates wanted the Jedi out of the political pictures. This is most likely because Darth Caedus was once a Jedi, but more importantly, one of Luke's best students.

"I understand," Luke said, "We just…" he paused, "just…" for the first time, he was at a loss for words.

Leia nodded her head, but her face showed that she clearly didn't approve of Luke's statement. "Well. One day, you're going to have to decide. Or else, we'll end up burying another member of this family."

Luke opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but he simply couldn't find anything else to say. His silence prompted Leia to exit the room. He knew that the war would create some tension between them, but he still had trouble accepting the idea that this time, they might not be together by the end of war. It was bad enough that one war took the life of their father, and their mother before that. All before they could truly get to know them.

Before, she could leave his sight, he finally found something to say. "Part of my job is to make both options work. And that's what I'll do." Leia turned back to face him as a result of his promise. At first, she was silent, which Luke took as a good sign. She then walked up to him until there was barely any distance between the two of them. They may be siblings, but their bond was special. The force had a way of enhancing one's strength through the love they feel for their family.

Leia tilted up her head to look into Luke's eye, and let out a deep exhale before speaking once more. "I know."

Her response caused a smirk to grow on Luke's face. "Didn't you say something like that to Han once," he said.

The smirk came to Leia's face as well. "Just like old times, hey," she said.

"Yeah. Hey, I…"

"MASTER LUKE, SENATOR LEIA, Captain Solo is on the line!" 3P0 said after bursting into the room. _Boy, does 3P0 have to interrupt everything,_ Luke and Leia said to each other through the force. Well, at least they understood that he always wanted to feel useful. Luke tried to best to not appear irritated. "Thank you. Thank you very much, 3P0," he said.

"Oh, you're perfectly welcome, sir," the droid responded. Before following their protocol droid to transmitter, Luke and Leia exchanged one last glance to each other which could be translated to something like, _yeah, just like old times._


	7. Chapter VII: New Order

Chapter VII: New Order

The hallways of Alliance Star Destroyers always made Caedus uncomfortable. He always didn't understand why they were so dark and uninviting. He wished that the environments of Alliance Starships and military bases had a more welcoming feel. After all, his plan behind ruling the Alliance was to unite the galaxy, not conquer it. He understood that the military couldn't afford the benefits of luxury like the politicians or the wealthy civilians, though he wish it was possible.

"Ugh…" just thinking about it all gave him a headache. The cycle of war and the responsibility he brought about himself by becoming chief of state. He never cared for politics or economics. His desired knowledge, and power in the force. He heard stories about the great Jedi and Sith of the past, from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Bane, and desired to impact the galaxy in the same way.

"My lord," he was then approached by Admiral Pellaeon, the head of the main Imperial Fleet. "You asked me to inform you when the prisoner had awakened."

Caedus was relieved to hear the news. He turned to face the admiral and asked, "has he said anything?"

"No, my lord." Pellaeon said calmly. "Me and some of the other officers were wondering if he would talk to you due to your history."

"Of course," Caedus responded. Before they could begin heading to the interrogation room, he asked, "Gilad, you have a history with him as well, do you not?"

"Yes," he said, "I served alongside his father during the Galactic Civil War. We were both deployed to the Outer Rim Territories before the Battle of Endor." They resumed their walk to the prison block.

"You both were lucky that Admiral Thrawn returned from the Unknown Regions around that time as well. Without his leadership, you would likely be rotting in a prison under the Imperial Palace."

"I was lucky. Now the Remnants of the Empire and the Republic are united once again. And this time, we are both are opposed to the Jedi."

Caedus began to get uncomfortable with the conversation, so he simply said, "Which I am grateful for."

For the past couple of hours, the Alliance officers had been trying to make Jagged tell them what he did with the map to the Temple. None of them had been successful. He had hoped that all the secrets of the Jedi Order had slipped out of Caedus's grasp when Grand Master Skywalker abandoned the Praxeum on Yavin 4. However, there were still hundred of Jedi Temple's hidden throughout the galaxy. And knew that the Sith would have wanted nothing more than to step inside one of those temple and to learn Jedi secrets that not even Skywalker himself had knowledge of.

"I'm surprised that you have remained silent for this long." The sound of Caedus's voice got Jagged's attention just as he was about to pass out from a combination of boredom and exhaustion. "I do apologize if my men have too harsh to you. You must understand, war makes us all so desperate." He pulled a second chair in the room towards him using the force, and positioned it so that he could face his prisoner. "You ready to talk?" he asked.

At first, Jagged was completely silent, with his head pointing down towards his lap. However, Caedus's question prompted him to raise his head to make eye contact. "About what?" he said sarcastically. He then prepared himself for a reaction from his interrogator. Instead of a hint at anger thought, Caedus simply smirked and shook his head in amusement.

"Don't believe that this will end well for you." He then leaned back on his chair. "You are a rebel and a traitor, and you have something that I want."

Jagged looked confused by his comment. "Don't you have a wife?" Before he realized that he definity struck a nerve, he felt something squeezing his neck. He didn't need to look back at Caedus to know that he was the cause. Then he started to lift up from his chair while he could still feel the pain on his neck. Jagged began to really start fearing for his life when he noticed that Caedus hadn't moved an itch. He just sat in his chair as if he was completely oblivious of Fel's answer. He didn't leave his chair, he didn't raise his hand to signal a force choke, nor did he maintain eye contact when Jagged began to get lifted off the floor.

Up until that point, Jagged believed that he could maintain his composure, but this display of power overwhelmed him. "You clearly have no sense of logic." Caedus then rises to his feet and tilts his face up towards Jagged. "I'm the one in control. The only thing stopping me from killing you is respect. For you, and your wife. Or…" he looked sarcastically confused, "Oh, you never asked her yet, did you?"

"I'm not intimidated by you," Jagged struggled to say.

"No need for courage. I already know where the map. In your droid right?"

A stim of terror rushed through Jagged. His chances suddenly seemed extremely slim. "What droid?"

Caedus smiled. He didn't bother explaining how he knew. "In case you're curious, I only asked you because I wanted to see if you were willing to submit to the New Order when no one is around to save you." Jagged then threw Jagged hard into the wall knocking him.

Caedus then walked out of the room where Pellaeon and several other officers awaited him. "It worked?" Pellaeon asked.

"Yes. The map is his BB unit. On the planet," Caedus responded.

"Good guess?"

"I know how they think," he responded. Pellaeon was aware that Caedus used to be one of Luke Skywalker's best student, but was still curious about Caedus personal goals, even though he has made it clear that he is loyal to the preservation of the Alliance. "Do we still have a garrison stationed on the planet?"

"We do," Pellaeon said firmly. "Though according to recent planetary reports, all known pockets of resistance have been defeated." Immediately following the admiral's exchange of information, an additional officer which Caedus predicted was from coordination entered the room.

"Admiral, Lord Caedus, our planetary scans have detected the travel trajectory of a missing escape pod from the Confederate ship. It appears that it landed somewhere in the Darjani Plains," the officer reported. The information given to them prompted Caedus and Pellaeon to turn and face each other, likely glad that the search area has been narrowed.

Caedus turned back to face the officer and asked, "Any nearby settlements?"

"We detected a small trading settlement run by local farmers," he responded.

"Looks like we have a destination," Caedus said to Pellaeon, "Deploy our garrison." Caedus then vacated the room.

Pellaeon then said to the officer, "Return to your station, and bring any further reports to me first. I'm not yet sure about him."


	8. Chapter VIII: Mara Jade

**I finally got to a chapter with Mara Jade, one of the greatest of Star Wars characters ever. Plus, it's a chapter with lengthy slow moments of character development. I'm so sorry for the delay, but I've just been so busy with so many things, like college and work. Plus, I got distracted by the Death Star DLC for Battlefront. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and if you have any ideas for stories I should for franchises other than Star Wars, please let me know.**

Chapter VIII: Mara Jade

The humble nature of the farmer marketplace was a bit surprising for Ben, but Jaina had got used to seeing everything the galaxy has to offer. She could sense this in the way that he seemed to constantly get distracted by the sights around them. She couldn't blame him, after all, he had spent most his life back on Coruscant waiting for Luke and Mara Jade to come home, give him a lightsaber lesson, and then come with them to the nearby forum so he could get a treat. He was been naive, whereas she had been to hundreds of planets living a life of constant battle against threat after threat. Some of which she would like desperately to forget about.

"I thought you said your mother would be around here," Jaina told Ben, seeing as she couldn't find anyone resembling her aunt.

"I did," he spoke back. "She must be...ah," he started to stutter.

"Did you seriously forget what she said to you?" she asked rather flustered.

"Look, it's not like we're on vacation." Ben was clearly flustered. Jaina was hesitant to shift the focus of the conversation to her cousin, but she never was one to resist temptation.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Of course I'm not, what did you think?" he responded harshly. The two of them stopped in their tracks in the middle of the path.

"No sir, your attitude right now suggests that there is more going than you being unable to follow simple instructions." Ben's words were halted for a little bit and he reevaluated what to say next.

"I'm just frustrated at where we are." he said.

"We are getting out of here," she said reassuringly and snarky at the same time.

"I mean...what we doing right now." he said. "We are all the way out here in the Outer Rim, not around the core, fighting with everyone else."

"But you volunteered to be on this mission." she said.

"I did. Because I thought it would be important."

"Who knows. Maybe it will."

"That's easy for you to say. You left the order to become a pilot and a spy." Jaina was taken aback by his comment.

"It wasn't the right path for me. I...I," Ben awaited her to finish, but instead she said, "you know what. A visit to this part of the galaxy is rare. I say we take a look around while we wait for her." Jaina began to resume her walk while Ben looked on confused. "How about a bite to eat." Ben then decided to just to along with whatever she had in mind.

"Ugh, okay." he said.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jaina shouted at the food merchant.

"I am not, sweetheart," he said back. His squamish tone and buffy look was enough to disgust Jaina, but now he was trying to rip her off for a couple pieces of fruit, while young Ben looked on embarrassed. When a human local stopped by noticing Jaina's heated argument, looking confused and worried. During which, Ben turned to notice that the bystander was now facing him, he simply said, "foreigners, 'ey." Unwilling to stick around, the local just walked away.

"It's just a bunch of fruits. It's only worth like three silvers!" Jaina exclaimed.

"Not here Alliance cheerleader. Here, its eight silvers." the merchant said snarkily.

"Look, what if give you a credit or two. Its around the same value."

"In case you haven't noticed, we don't have a bank around here. Only silvers."

"In case YOU haven't noticed, there also isn't any police around here to stop me from knocking your teeth down your throat."

"Oh, I'm so scared," he said sarcastically. "But, the people around here don't really tolerate physical assault here," then he smirked. Ben turned around and saw that the local who passed him had returned, but he brought backup with him, all with gestures that implied that they were thinking, I wouldn't do that if I were you. That's when he decided to step in and trying to stop his cousin from doing something stupid. "Jaina, let's get out of here," Ben said desperately. However, she was too much in the moment in listen to him.

"Please don't threaten me. I really don't take too kindly to…" then Jaina could feel the tip of a blaster pistol pushing up against the back of her neck.

"No subtlety. Just like your father." Jaina recognized the voice. It was Mara Jade. She have wanted to test her niece's ability to blend into a crowd. Something that Solos aren't very adept at. Jaina turned to face her aunt, with her flame-red hair, emerald eyes, suit, and white scarf.

"Just not my style," Jaina said to her aunt. "Good to see you, Mara. Glad you didn't die or something." The two then shared a hug, while Ben continued to hope they could leave the area soon.

"Of course I didn't die," Mara said. She noticed that they were still standing in the middle of a standoff. "Think it's time we get out of here." She turned to the merchant her niece was arguing with and waved her hand to perform a mind trick. "Tell them everything is alright."

"Don't worry good people, everything is alright," he said, and the people in the market returned to their previous occupation before the incident could intensify. And for good measure, Mara force pulled a fruit into her hand as she, Jaina, and Ben began to leave.

"For you," Mara gently lifted the fruit into her son's hand, which he responded with slight amazement. "Thank you, Mom," he said.

"Hey," Jaina said with some irritation in her voice.

"He didn't make a scene back there," Mara joked. Mara was always an the kind of person who no one could predict what would do. Jaina was aware that she had a rather dark past, which would show from time to time, but her time as a Jedi has definitely made her a lot more light-hearted, though she always maintained a sense of duty and discipline. "Alright," Mara said, remembering the mission that sent them here. "Do you have it?" she asked. Jaina remembering BB-8, bent down to the little droid and extended her hand to ask for the map. Ben was extremely grateful that no one tried to steal him while they were occupied with the merchant. BB-8 opened his small storage compartment, with the item they were seeking inside. Jaina grabbed it and showed it to her aunt feeling very accomplished by their current success. "Excellent," Mara said relieved. "Let's take this somewhere a little more private."

Ben closed the door behind them, as they entered an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the town. Mara hoped this would be far enough out of the way that no one would randomly step in by accident. "I think the coast is clear," he said to Mara, to which responded with, "Good."

Meanwhile, Jaina was getting the item ready. So when Ben and his mother turned to her to discover what their target really was, they were met with the awe-inspiring sight of a holographic image of the galaxy.

"We went through all of that trouble for this," Jaina said very disappointed. Ben on the other hand was a lot more optimistic.

"It's a map," Ben said while in amazement.

"Yeah, I got that," Jaina said annoyed. "But to where?" she noticed that the map had no shown destinations or directions.

"I think I know," Mara interrupted. "Remember how Luke was discussing something about Jedi relics and points of interests in the unknown regions." She had her son and niece's attention. "Maybe related to that is our little x marks the spot."

"But then where's the x?" Ben asked.

"The map must be incomplete," Mara answered. Jaina then looked as though she was trying very poorly to contain a fit of rage following Mara's theory. She walked around in a large circle with her hands covering her eyes and teeth fiercely gritting. "Fantastic!" she exclaimed. "Now we're screwed. We almost got killed several times, lost an entire cruiser, and now Jagged is captured. All for an incomplete map! Typical!" Then she stormed out, leaving Mara, Ben, and BB-8 by themselves.

At first Ben tried to go after her, but Mara stopped him saying, "Don't, let her be." Ben was a little depressed by their current predicament. "She's just upset. She will get over..."

"I know," he interrupted, which took her by surprise.

"You are too smart for your own good, you know that?" she said slightly amused.

"I hope we can make it all right," he said, "so we could..." he paused, "I don't know," he gave up.

Mara lowered herself to be on the same eye level as her son. She decided it was time to give him another one of her force teachings. "I remember you went through the same thing. Afraid of your power, afraid of what you could do with such power." Ben called back to those nightmares he would have every night. When monsters would snatch him out of his bed and do terrible things to him, all while his parents were nowhere to be found. For a time, he thought they were just too busy with fighting someone else's wars to protect him. It wasn't until he started traveling around the galaxy with Jaina and her brother, Jacen where they helped him reconnect with the force. He was especially fond of Jacen, as he helped him realize the good that he could do with the force.

Speaking of Jacen, Ben still wonders what happened to his cousin. His parents, as well as Uncle Han and aunt Leia have told him that he died during Operation Roundabout, the battle that started the war. However, he also heard rumors that Jacen is indeed alive, but is currently missing and completely unaccounted for. "Yeah," Ben said to Mara, taking his focus off of the past. "But Jacen thought me how to control my power."

"He did," Mara said. Ben that noticed that she looked rather grim following her comment. "Jaina, she...ah, she gave up because she isn't the best when it comes to control."

"Am I any better?" he asked very innocently.

"Hold your engines little guy. You have yet to prove that. But I have faith you will in this mission." she said.

"But we don't know where to go next."

"You really just give up like that," she said, which sparked a fuse in her son prompting him to try to defend himself. But before he do so, "mice and geese give up, not Jedi," she then began tickling him, which caught him off guard.

"Mom!" he said.

"You a Jedi?" she asked.

"Mom!"

"You a Jedi?"

"Mom, you know I…" he was then hoisted up into a warm embrace all while they both laughed hysterically. Just like that, a parent lecturing her son, turned into a moment of levity.

Just the laughter calmed, Mara said, "It feels like I barely get to see you like this."

"Yeah," he responded. "Why did you and Dad have to become so famous?" Mara laughed.

"I know. I never really wanted to be famous. It just happened. Turns out life never happens the way you think it will."

"I bet it turned out alright for you," Ben said.  
"You didn't even need to read my mind," Mara said. She then gently lowered Ben down to the ground.

Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from outside, which sounded like yelling. Whatever it was, Mara could sense that wasn't friendly. "Something's outside. BB-8 go check it out," she commanded. The droid responded with a frightened and confused squeal. "Yes, go check it out," she repeated. With a clear look of reluctance, the droid obeyed, and rolled out through the main entrance. It took only a few seconds for the little droid to return, this time with a squeal that sounded terrified. So terrified, that BB-8 didn't even bother stopping to explain what he saw. Instead, he burst over a second exit in the back. This could only mean one thing, and Mara knew it.

"Ben. Run, now," she softly but firmly commanded. Without arguing, Ben obeyed his mother and the two darted out of the building.

Once outside, Mara checked around the corner to observe the scene, and her hunch was proven true. She spotted a squad of Alliance soldiers, all in arid fatigues, accompanied by a few stormtroopers. Someone that she didn't spot was Jaina. She was at first concerned for her niece, but knowing Jaina, Mara assumed that she ran off somewhere to hide. She turned back to her son and said, "We gotta get out of here quick. Did Jaina tell you if the Falcon was still flyable?"

"She said it is, but we will need to do some deep repairs if we want to go far," he said, hoping that what he stated would be enough for her.

"That will have to do for now," she said to her son's relief. "Uh, let's hide out in the market until we can find Jaina." Ben nodded his head in agreement and the pair proceeded to quietly run back to the market square and attempted to blend in with the other townspeople. "You see her?" Ben asked.

"Not yet," she responded regrettably. They both continued to scan the area for Jaina, with no luck so far. While walking, Mara noticed a soldier up ahead asking a local for a lead asking, "I'm looking for three wanted fugitives," then he pulled out a holopad containing a picture of Mara, "this is one of them, have you seen her?" he continued, prompting Mara to lift up her white hood to help disguise herself, and pulled Ben to side to change direction before the soldier could notice them. "Crap! They're on to us. We need to hurry," she whispered.

Then Ben could hear some commotion up ahead. "Hey Mom, I think something's up over there," and then pointed in the direction that he heard the noise from.

When they discovered what the noise was, they were now consumed with terror. The Alliance soldiers found Jaina, and were trying to restrain her. One had his large arm around her throat, and while Jaina struggles to escape his grasp screaming, "GET OFF ME!", the other was trying to get a grip on her legs to cuff her. But then, Jaina looked as though she was about to give up and let him cuff her, and that's when Ben was about the burst over to the scene to help his cousin, but Mara held him back, not wanting to give themselves away, as much as it pained her to do so.

However, their terror turned to shock when they noticed that all of sudden that Jaina was now taking the fight to her captors. The soldier trying to cuff her legs ended up getting a kick to his manhood for his troubles as well as a knee to the nose. When Jaina turned to attack the second soldier, she got smacked right on the cheek by his armored forearms. He then tried to throw another strike with his other arm, which Jaina could tell was coming and was able to duck at the right moment, and followed it up with a leg sweep, knocking him down on his back, and then she finished him off with an elbow to the face, knocking him out. Amazed by his cousin's resiliency, Ben exclaimed, "son of a killik!" Then he felt the shock of being smacked in the chest by Mara for almost letting out a profanity.

After catching her breath, Jaina turned to spot her aunt and cousin in the crowd. "Well, come on," she insisted.  
"Good call," Mara responded. Seeing as how the soldier had spotted and attacked one of them, there now seemed like very little reason for them to continue trying to be sneaky. Especially when the commotion attracted the attention of other soldiers, one of which commanded, "stop them!" pointing in Mara and Ben's direction.

The chase was now on.


	9. Chapter IX: Escape

**I'm so sorry for how long it took me to finish this chapter, it just turned out to be much longer than I anticipated. Not to mention, I've been busy with finals, the holidays, and I've just been distracted with other things like reading the Legacy of the Force books to do research, and I also was thinking about other stories I wanted to do like a Canon vs Legends story, as well as stories for other franchises. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

Chapter IX: Escape

The rush of adrenaline burst through Jaina's veins as she and her family were running through the village from the soldiers. She knew from experience passed to her from her father, Han Solo, always run when the odds are not in your favor. And this was definitely one of those times. And the three of them, her, Mara, and Ben were going to have their work cut out for them. The enemy was right on their heels and their getaway ship, which wasn't even 100% ready to fly, was at best a few miles from their current position.

Behind Jaina, she could hear BB-8 squeal, trying to keep up with his human counterparts, while Mara and Ben were able keep up with her. Mara could be seen gripping her son's hand so he would always be by her side. Understanding his mother's concern, Ben allowed her to be as protective as she was being.

Startled by the chase, many of the locals began running for their lives. In doing so, a giant container tipped over, blocking half the path. Mara, Ben, and BB-8 were fine, however Jaina was forced to vault over the obstacle in order to not halt her momentum. Around the same time that she did so, a soldier turned the corner, right in front of Jaina. She blurted out, "oh, crap," before smashing his exposed face with her knee, knocking him out. Jaina then decided to grab his blaster rifle, hoping that later come in handy.

Now coming up on a closed off tent, Mara gripped Ben's arm even tighter and yelled to Jaina, "in there!" Mara realized that they needed to stop and rethink.

Exhausted, Ben inhaled and exhaled very heavily, while Mara and Jaina were too busy panicking. "They are so on to us," Jaina exclaimed.

"You think?" Mara responded sarcastically. "We'll never make it out of here without speeders or something."

During which, Ben looked as though he was about to have an asthma attack. "Oh man. They're shooting at us. They're shooting…"

"We are alright," Mara said firmly.

"What do we do?" Ben asked.

"I think we should make a break for the transit area on the side of town. If we're lucky, at least one speeder should still be there," Jaina suggested.

"Too risky, they are most going to be headed the edge of town to set up a perimeter. What we should do…" suddenly a soldier waltzed into the tent out of nowhere. When he noticed that the three of them were in there with him, there was a short and awkward silence, with the soldier looking especially surprised. Mara then broke the silence by blurting, "Never mind," and she and Jaina bounced of him, but not before he could yell, "THEY'RE IN…" The two then knocked him out. Ben responded with, "Man. You guys are pretty good at this."

Mara turned her head to Jaina and said, "On second thought, your plan might not be that bad." And just like that, Jaina gave the thumb-up, Mara and Ben were once again holding hands, and running as fast as they could.

When they were back out in the open, they were once again detected with soldier yelling, "blast them!"

Fortunately, Jaina now had some form of an equalizer in the blaster she picked up earlier. When she tried to return fire on one of the attacking soldier, Jaina was shocked when Mara beat her to the punch with a pistol of her own, which looked reminiscent of Han Solo's DL-44. For a brief moment, Jaina looked rather crossed with her aunt, yelling, "You could have done that earlier!"

"I'm sorry!" Mara yelled back. Knowing that this wasn't the time for arguing, they immediately went back to running.

When they finally made it to the station, if they could even call it that, for how pathetic the sight of it was, they spotted what looked like a suitable transport.

"We made it!" Ben yelled rejoiced. However, right when they were about to make their getaway, a lucky thermal detentor tossed by one of the nearby soldier caused the speeder to explode, with the shockwave knocking Mara and Ben back, and knocking Jaina forward. When Jaina landed, she was now it the seat of a second speeder. "Nice," Jaina said. Then she noticed a soldier running up to Ben. As fast she could, Jaina drew the blaster, and landed a shot on the soldier's chest. Ben leapt to his feet and yelled to his cousin, "That was awesome!"

"I know. Come on!" she yelled back. Ben jumped into the speeder with Jaina. Before Mara did so, she used the force to tear down an elevated column and block one of the exits leading to the station. "That ought to hold them off for a while," she said. Now all three and BB-8 were now in the speeder. Jaina yanked on the throttle, and they burst away with BB-8 almost flying off from the force of the speeder's acceleration. He was able to hold on though, using one of his pop-out cables.

"How do we get to the Falcon?" Mara asked Jaina.

"We just head North," was all she responded with.

"Brilliant," Mara growned.

For a second, it looked like they were clear. "I think we lost them," Ben said cheerfully.

Then all of a sudden, a giant troop transport with the Galactic Alliance's insignia flew right in front of them, blocking them and using a powerful turret to attack them. "Spoke too soon," Ben muttered disappointed.

Jaina then attempted to get around them, but the enemy driver could seemingly predict whatever direction she was going to turn. "Damn, we gotta shake that thing!" Mara yelled.

"Working on it," Jaina replied. At one point, the transport forces Jaina into the side of a barn with numerous clotheslines hanging on the side, until their speeder torn most of them down. Ben naively yelled, "Hey, that was clean laundry!"

"They can wash it again!" she yelled back. While she was distracted, she accidently ran down four or five wooden fences to which Mara joked, "and you don't have to hit every fence."

"I'M SORRY, okay!" Jaina screamed.

After a long time of being suppressed during a high-speed chase, Jaina scrambled for options, "What do I do?" she turned to Mara. She then pointed to a nearby hill, "try there!" Jaina obeyed and it seemed to cut them off from the transport, but they then dropped into a neighboring market. "Oh, crap!" Ben exclaimed.

Too late to turn around, Jaina just decided to keep driving forward yelling, "Hang on!"

"Where are you going!?" Mara yelled over all the destruction that her niece was unintentionally causing.

"You told me to go this way!" Jaina responded. Meanwhile Ben was frightened that Jaina was going to run someone over. "Coming through!" he screamed.

"Well, this was a good idea," Mara said sarcastically.

"Do you want to drive?" Jaina asked angrily.

"No, you're doing just fine," Mara responded.

Finally, they cleared out of the village, giving them all a sense of relief. "I think we lost them," Jaina said cheerfully. Then the transport reappeared, blocking their path once again. "Of course we didn't!" Jaina yelled before blaster fire began to rain upon them once more. "What now?"

Before Mara could give any suggestions, the transport decelerated causing it to bump into the front of their speeder. The impact swung Jaina and Mara's heads forward with great force, and Ben almost flew right out of the speeder.

He shrieked in fright when his head came dangerously close to the ground while traveling 60 miles per miles. Mara felt the same fright, screaming, "BEN!" grabbing his belt and holding on for dear life, trying to keep her son aboard. To give her aunt a hand, Jaina slowed down and made a sharp left turn, hoping the velocity would fling her cousin back into the speeder. While it was not enough to get him all the way back in, the height Ben got from the sudden change of direction gave Mara better leverage to pull him in on her own. "Let's not do that again," Mara said exhaustively.

"Blame him," Jaina said pointing at the transport. "I'm sick of this guy!" she says angrily. She stomps on the throttle, speeding right past the transport, getting right to the side, spotting the front port window, with the driver behind it. "Let's shut this guy down!" Jaina said, and pointed to the blaster she picked up, and yelled, "MARA!" Mara grabbed the blaster and aimed it at the driver. Suddenly the driver turned and noticed Mara pointing the blaster at him, causing him to put on his best _oh crap_ face, until getting blasted right in the face.

"Yes! She got him!" Ben screamed in excitement. Without a driver, the transport began to tumble, flipping violently, and creating messy craters with every crash it made. Jaina was able to avoid the carnage, feeling a good sense of satisfaction of outsmarting that driver before the gunner could warn him. "Looks like we got our wind back," Jaina said to Mara. "but man, Caedus must really want us out of the picture."

"You think?" Mara said rhetorically. "I think we should stay away from this planet after this."

Right behind them, BB-8 squealed in excitement. Jaina turned her head back to face the droid and asked, "what's up?" Suddenly a dark shadow began to cover them from overhead. The three were stunned into silence. Jaina and Mara turned to face each other with their best _we're doomed_ faces. Then decided to look up to find the source of the shadow, spotting an Alliance Destroyer hovering above in low orbit.

Ben gulped hard before whispering, "uh, oh," and Jaina said "well, this just got a lot more interesting."

After a few minutes of remaining hidden from the Destroyer's laser barrages, Jaina finally got her aunt and cousin to the Millennium Falcon. A ship that Mara Jade had come to know rather well after fighting the Yuuzhan Zong and the Imperial Remnant alongside Jaina's father, Han. However, they all knew that out of the three of them, Jaina was the best pilot, so she would be the one to the fly the old freighter, despite piloting it only a few times.

"Let's hope the Falcon will still fly," Jaina said. To which Ben replied hopefully, "We'll be fine, I know it."

Knowing that they had no time to lose, they lept out of the speeder, and sprinted to the ramp, with Ben making it up first due to his speed. Once Mara entered the Falcon, she began to call out directions, "Jaina, get to the cockpit! Ben, you and are going to the man the cannons just in case!" The three ran to their position, while BB-8 rolled around squealing helplessly, awaiting what will happen next.

Jaina reached the cockpit, spotting the familiar circle port window and the controls that she's seen numerous times. Even if the majority of time, the ship was being flown by her father. She sat down in the pilot's chair, and began to start up the ship. "You guys ready," she asked through the comm system.

"We're ready," Mara responded now sitting in the upper cannon pod with a headset on to communicate with Jaina, while Ben was right below her.

"Alright, let's get going." Jaina pulled the ignition lever to get the Falcon moving, however the ship began to stall. "Uh, we have a problem."

"We heard too," Mara said.

"What do we do now," Ben asked freaking out a little bit.

BB-8 rolls up right behind Jaina at the entrance of the cockpit and sounded a sequence of beeps which caught her attention. When she saw her friend, Jagged's droid behind her, she grew a small smile of relief on her face. "I'm glad you came along, buddy." With some sense of assurance returned to her mind, Jaina started thinking. "Try to open the fuel converters."

Obeying her, BB-8 rolled away toward the power console in the main hall, and much like how Uncle Luke's droid R2-D2 fixed the Falcon's hyperdrive during the escape from Cloud City during the War with the Empire years ago, BB-8 extracted his computer interface arm from one of his body slots, and inserted it into the module slot that most ships would have in case they needed an astromech droid. After twisting and turning it a few times, he beeped to acknowledge that he was finished. Jaina then gave the ignition another try. However, the ship stalled yet again.

The sound started to annoy Ben. "Ugh," he growled.

"No, that's not it," Jaina went back to thinking. She had to know. She knew the ins the outs of the ship, and has been honing her mechanical skills for years. If it wasn't the fuel, what was it? The nav computer and life support system were fine. Maybe it had something to do with the power circuits leading from the reactor to the engines. "Try giving the negative power coupling a spark." BB-8 then gave the module another sequence of twists and turns in accordance with Jaina's instruction. When he finished, he gave another beep acknowledge his task's completion. Jaina gave the ignition another go, and it looked as though it was going to get started, but then it stalled again. Growing more frustrated, Jaina gave the controls a large bang with her forearm. This turned out to be the unexpected solution, as the Falcon finally started up all the way. Of course, just like her father. When in doubt, just hit something really hard.

"I got it," she informed the others. BB-8 lowered his head in slight disappointment, likely expected a thank you, even if they were in a danger zone. "You guys ready?"

"We're set," Mara responded.

The Millennium Falcon began to the elevate a few meters, and finally began thrust towards the outer atmosphere. After a few minutes, the sky turned from light blue to black. Now they were in space. However, the Star Destroyer they saw earlier was waiting for them. "There it is," Mara made sure to warn Jaina and Ben about. While the sight of the ship and its incoming laser barrage frightened Ben, who was still technically a kid, Jaina began to feel a sense of anger and determination. She couldn't think of anything more satisfying than toppling the people who killed her friends, and tore apart her family.

Noticing the incoming laser, she began to maneuver the ship accordingly. Of course, Mara knew that just like her father and uncle, Jaina had the tendency to pull off some "bold" moves with starships, including the infamous spin. As she knew, Mara felt the ship swiftly rotating, meaning Jaina did indeed use the spin.

Even with a safety buckle, Ben bumped right out and right back into his seat with extremely force. Feeling the pain of the bump that came with seemingly no warning, he yelled, "Jaina!" Then the ship bumped and twisted more, causing him to get a little nauseous.

Realizing that her piloting was probably too much, she says rather bashfully, "Sorry," Suddenly she felt something strange, as if it was a presence in the force. This caught her by surprise because she wasn't connected to the force anymore. Whatever it was, it overwhelmed her a little bit. Enough so, to distract her from the Destroyer's attack. So much so that one of the lasers managed to graze the hull, which was especially troubling because the shield generator wasn't strong enough to deflect the majority of the blast. The impact knocked Jaina back into focus, while Mara and Ben were simply knocked around unaware of Jaina's distraction, and BB-8 got flung around the ship's hallways until he was able to deploy multiple grappling hooks to keep himself in place and avoid any violent collisions with the walls.

Soon after, the same disturbance that Jaina felt passed on to Mara, who was able to understand it better because of her maintained link to the force. She turned her pod to the Destroyer firmly, knowing who was aboard it.

She quietly said, "It's Caedus."

After being informed of the encounter with the Millennium Falcon, Darth Caedus entered the bridge of the Star Destroyer, which had a clear resemblance to the ships used by the Empire and Imperial Remnant since the end of the Clone Wars, with a few differences. The floors and walls were much cleaner and shinier, and the computer consoles have bright colors on their displays, reminiscent of the skyline on Coruscant. It represented how most technology in his time were evolutions of older designs, while at the same time looking much nicer. While war may still be commonplace, the standard of living has improved with the emergence of the Alliance.

"Report," he firmly commanded.

The commander for the main batteries was the first to answer. "We've spotted a ship attempting to vacant the planet's orbit. It matches the signature of a YT model freighter that was downed during the battle from the prior rotation."

 _YT,_ Caedus thought. It could only mean one thing. It was the Millennium Falcon. He swiftly rushed to the port window to get a look for himself. He looked towards the planet, and there it was. Just as he remembered.

He also needed to know who was flying it. He stretched out with the force, trying to see if he could pick up the presence of someone familiar to him. Indeed he did, a presence he had felt before.

He turned to face one of the officers next to him and asked, "Did our troops spot anyone suspicious on the surface during their search?"

"During a shootout in a settlement located in the Darjani Plains where the pod landed, three humans and a droid fled via landspeeder. Two the humans were female." This prompted Caedus to turn back to face him, looking both shocked and a little crossed.

"What did those two females look like? Clothing? Hair Color?" he asked.

"One had dark hair. The other had red hair."

Caedus looked shocked. He quickly rushed back to rear command center, yelling, "cease fire! Cease FIRE!"

Pellaeon was standing nearby, looking frustrated with the Sith's swift change in command, "What are you doing?!" he demanded.

"Mara Jade and Jaina Solo are aboard that ship. They take them alive." He then commanded again for the gunners to cease fire, to which they obeyed.

"They are enemies and traitors to the Alliance. We shouldn't risk them escaping, not when they are right in our grasp," Pellaeon responded.

Such a comment, caused Caedus to get up right in the admiral's face, where he quietly but strongly told him, "Remember Gilad, I'm the one in command. I'm the one who made peace between your kind and the proper government of the galaxy. When I say, take them alive, you take. Them. Alive." He then returned to the bridge, shoulder barging Pellaeon, where he continued to bark commands, "Set the cannons to ion, and prepare the tractor beam."

The officers, loyal to the Sith more so than Pellaeon, obeyed, ready to the capture the prized ship.

"We need to jump to lightspeed!" Mara yelled, cautious of whatever the enemy may have in store for them.

"It's gonna take time to set the coordinates, and besides, we don't even know where to go," Jaina said.

"We just need to get out of the system."

"Alright we could…" then the ship rocked hard. "Whoo, what was that?!"

"Uh, guys, why is the ship moving sideways?" Ben asked. He, and subsequently Jaina and Mara noticed that the ship wasn't moving where it was supposed to go. It was moving towards the Destroyer.

"They're pulling us in with a tractor beam!" Mara realized. "We can't make a jump to lightspeed while we're caught in the beam."

"Alright, we gotta think," Jaina said. "Let's see, are the guns still working?"

"Yeah."

"So if I'm right, the hangars for these kinds of ships have a controls for function like the tractor beam that link to the bridge. We could fire the guns at the hangar and hopefully disrupt their systems long enough to make the jump to hyperspace."

"Hopefully?" Ben said nervously.

"We don't much choice." Jaina knew that for this plan to work, they would have to act quickly, so before they thought of a course to set. Then she realized… _no,_ Jaina thought, _she wouldn't betray him for us._ Jaina remembered her old friend, Tenel Ka Djo. She was in romantic relationship with Jaina's brother, Jacen. However, the war torn them apart. Tenel Ka had publicly allied the Hapes Cluster with the Alliance, but Luke has always suspected that she maintained a close connection with the Skywalkers. Hapes, unfortunately was too far away for them to make it with the Falcon in the condition it was. They would have to make a pit stop along the way. But where? One planet that was rather close was Garqi, known for its purple botanical gardens. It may be lightly populated, but that normally means that there is a fueling station or two. It also may be in Remnant space, but they weren't going to make it out dodge where they were. "I got something, get ready," Jaina told her companions.

"Ok, I'll try to take out as many of their turbolasers as possible," Mara instructed. "Ben, you'll be the one to cause chaos in that hangar."

"Got it, mom," Ben complied, hoping that he wouldn't mess up it came time for action.

Pretty soon, the main hangar in the belly of the Destroyer was in view for Jaina in the cockpit. They had to act fast, and needed a lot of luck. "Can I start shooting now?" Ben asked desperately, really not wanting to get captured.

"Wait...wait for it…" Jaina said, all the while the adrenaline was rushing through all three of them. _Now,_ the very tip of the ship was in the hangar, "NOW!"

Free to not hold back, Ben held the trigger down relentlessly, desperate to get the escape going. As the lasers began flying, explosions consumed the hangar, with both fighters and the structure in ruin, and the enemy troops flying like ragdolls. Meanwhile, Mara was able to destroy two cannons on the right of the ship. She wasn't able to turn around quickly enough, however it turns out that Ben's destructive barrage had indeed crippled the Destroyer's tractor beam. Because of this, Jaina was able to pull off the closest possible dodge. "We're free! I'm punching it!" Jaina pulled back the lever on the control console to go to lightspeed. The ship then gave a groan of acceleration and the stars in the distance changed to the familiar light blue lines, and just like that, the ship was gone.

"They're gone, sir," the officer in charge of scanning informed Caedus and Pellaeon, noticing that their target had escaped through hyperspace. "And the central hangar has suffered heavy damage."

Pellaeon was furious that Caedus's plan had backfired. "You fool! We just lost three valuable prisoners and they likely have the relic with them!" He then went to slap the Sith across the face, however he couldn't move his arm. Caedus was likely using force stasis to keep him from moving. Without even looking back at the admiral, he simply said, "Calculate their trajectory, and begin a pursue…" he paused, "NOW!" Most of the people on the bridge jumped in fright from the leader's sudden outburst, even Pellaeon himself. After that, Caedus quickly turned and proceeded to exit the bridge, saying only, "inform me when you make any progress."

For a moment, the entire bridge was stunned into silence, until Pellaeon noticed that he was free to move again, to which he ordered, "As he said. Prepare a pursuit of the escaping ship." After everyone resumed with their duties, he turned to the door that Caedus exited through and said, "Careful Caedus. You may be allied with the right side, but that doesn't mean that everyone will want you stay around for long."


	10. Chapter X: Alone without Help

**Again, I'm sorry for the delay. College and work have been especially stressful this past few weeks, and I've also been preparing my next story, "Canon vs Legends" which I'm really excited to start working on. I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter.**

Chapter X: Alone without Help

Leia's desk in her desk was starting to be covered in a blanket of holopads containing war reports across the galaxy. They would state casualty numbers for a recent battle in the mid-rim, or war supplies being stolen by pirate gangs. It had weighing down Leia with crushing effect. Her whole life had been controlled by war. She grew up watching her adoptive father, Senator Bail Organa trying to free the galaxy from Emperor Palpatine and her real father, Anakin Skywalker, or as he was known at that time as Darth Vader. It was a struggle that lasted for half of her lifetime, and after that, she had to deal with the seemingly unstoppable Yuuzhan Zong, who took both her friend, Chewbacca, and her son, Anakin, who was named after her father. The only thing keeping her from falling unconscious was the feeling that she would eventually receive news regarding either her husband, Han, or her daughter, Jaina. She had no way of knowing if either of them were alive, dead, or captured by the Alliance, and she wasn't willing to rely on rumors.

Last she heard, Jaina was on a mission in the Outer Rim to recover an ancient Jedi artifact, while Han was trying to convince some neutral systems in the Mid Rim to join the Confederation. Leia never really was on board with the Confederation's cause, but considering where she and her family were at when the war broke out, they didn't have much of a choice.

A new report just came in, with a notification coming in the form of a synthetic ding coming from one of the holopads. _Maybe this is it,_ she thought. She quickly skimmed through the text hoping to find any mention of her family. She then felt crushing disappointment when it was simply another battle report. Apparently, the Alliance's attempt to retake Tralus was a minor failure. _Terrific_ , Leia thought sarcastically.

The door to the outside corridor slid open, where Luke walked in. She finally had something else to focus on. "Hey," he said. "Am I interrupting anything?"

"Of course not," she answered. "I was hoping you'd come."

"It's piling on you again, isn't it?"

"Correct."

"Remember when we used to fight for freedom or justice?"

"I do. Now it's just about controlling the most territories or having the heaviest credit chets."

"We did choose this side, though. If we stayed with the Alliance, we could have become the next Empire." After the Alliance was formed, the government had started to be extremely aggressive with its law enforcement. So much so that some sort of conflict seemed inevitable, with Corellia announcing its intentions to secede being the last straw. At first, Luke, Leia, and the Jedi Order sided with the Alliance to keep the peace, but when their allies in the Alliance began to get too dark with their policies, they couldn't remain allied for much longer. And considering that Corellia was Han's homeworld, they had to switch allegiances.

"You're right," Leia responded. "You're always right." she continued looking flustered.

"I can sense that you're worried about Han and Jaina," he said professionally.

At first Leia looked like she wanted to break something, before saying, "sometimes I wish that we were never force-sensitive. Sometimes I want to curse our father for having some great destiny. A destiny that seems to have accomplished nothing. And because of this 'gift' we have, we're still 'great warriors' in our sixties." she then rose to her feet and leaned against the side wall. "I committed my life to the Rebellion because I wanted to fight for what was right, but now I just wish I could have retired to some beach on Kashyyyk with Han and the kids. And then I start to wonder how we would have ended up. Jacen using one of his pets to scare Jaina, and then she would retaliate with one of her little gadgets, while Anakin would try to stop things from getting out of hand."

"After everything you've done for the Republic, you definitely deserve it. Me, I could never accept such peace. I always like to believe that there is something else to save, something else to learn."

Behind him, R2-D2 rolled through the entrance and whistled to get Luke and Leia's attention. "Hey R2, what's up?" The droid responded with a series of beeps as an answer. "Oh, ok. I'll be right there." R2 then rolled back outside awaiting his Jedi master and friend. Before he left, Luke turned back to face Leia and said, "By the way. Don't worry about Jaina. I can tell that she, Ben, and Mara will be fine."

Leia smiled and said, "I know. Jaina can never go wrong when it comes to starships."

"Something's wrong!" Jaina yelled over the comlink.

"What?" Mara asked.

"I think the hyperdrive was damaged in the crash. I gotta drop out of light speed." She pulled the throttle back, causing the blue tunnel of hyperspace to transition back to the normal night-sky-like backdrop. "Good news, it looks like we lost them. Bad news, we need to fix the hyperdrive or we'll be stuck out here." Jaina hopped out of her seat and rushed toward the main hall, almost tripping over BB-8 while running through the hallway. When she arrived, she saw that Ben and Mara had decided to return to the hall as well. "Ok what we need to do?" Ben asked.

"Let me think. We, uh… well, I'm going to," she then went to pull off the lid to the maintenance access, where Ben then walked up to give her hand even though it wasn't really heavy. "I got it," she said, to which Ben responded with, "I just want to help."

Mara felt proud at her son's initiative so she decided to give him something to do. "Jaina is going to need some tools. You can get some from the engineering bay."

"Ok, I'll be right back." Then the boy rushed to his destination to the retrieve the tools. Jaina hopped down the shaft and began to inspect the machinery. Mara leaned down to get a look at her niece and asked her, "Can we fix it?"

"Uh," Jaina looked around to see what she was dealing with. "It looks like one of the circuits connecting the hyperdrive to the reactor is out of place and the hyperdrive itself took a severe banging. I'm gonna have to reach in there and put the circuit back in place. As for the hyperdrive…" before she could finish Ben returned with the tools.

"I got 'em," he said. "What do you need?"

"The extendable tongs," she answered. Ben gives her the tool quickly, where she grabbed and started to reach into the gaps of the machinery. "Looks like we need to jump it or replace it," Mara said, also knowing a thing or two about ships.

"Exactly," Jaina said while struggling to reach the circuit. "Which is a big problem because we…" then suddenly Jaina screamed in agony, causing Mara, Ben, and BB-8 to jump back in fright. However, then Jaina started to laugh. That's when they realized Jaina was faking. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist." Flustered, Mara grabbed a metal plate from the bin and smacked it on the top of her niece's head. "Don't ever do that again or I'll hit you even harder," she threatened. Jaina then rubbed the pain out of her head before responding to her aunt with, "sorry," rather irritated, then returned to work.

After a few seconds, Jaina was able to grab the wire, and began to motion it back into place. "I think I got it!" she exclaimed.

"You think?" Mara responded not sure about her niece's answer. Then Ben was put in the uncomfortable position of being caught between his mother and cousin arguing about ship stuff which he didn't really care for. He decided to back away and look around for something to occupy his time. On the opposite side the room he spotted the entrance for what he recognized as the ship's medical room. At first, he was simply curious about what he might find something noteworthy, but indeed he found something noteworthy. It looked like a mobile tracking beacon attached to the wall. It looked active. What could that mean? Did something sneak aboard the ship and plant it? Someone allied with the Alliance?! "Guys! I found something you might want to see."

Mara and Jaina stormed into the room to see what Ben was alluding to. When they got a good look at it, they were both in shock. "No," Jaina whimpered. "Impossible. I rigged the ship to alert me if anyone tried to get aboard after I left."

"It doesn't matter. It's here. But we don't know who it belongs to."

"Who else would it belong but Caedus." Jaina stepped in closer to the device to show the proof of her claim. "It's of Corellian origin. From the Engineering Corporation, to be precise." Jaina then turned off the beacon just for the sake of it.

"Ok, we just need to stay calm and get to work," Mara said. Jaina seemingly ignored her aunt's advice by rushing out of the room, heading back to the maintenance hatch. Mara followed her asking, "what are doing?"

"Trying to get the ship working again." Jaina answered.

"You're not going to get anywhere like this."

"Better than letting the Alliance catch up to us."  
"You should remember that you're still a Jedi. And Jedi are most powerful with focus."

Jaina popped her back up with a frown exclaiming, "That's not for me anymore! In fact, I was never meant for the life of a Jedi."

Mara was shocked that her niece would say something like that after everything she had accomplished after first coming to Luke's Jedi Temple when she was just a child. "You don't mean that. You must realize how important you are to the order and to your uncle. Your destiny…" Jaina interrupted her with, "Destiny?! There's no such thing. It's just a bunch of superstition both the Jedi and the Sith use to control their followers. Me. I choose to have control over my own life, and I…"

"STOP IT!" Ben screamed. "BOTH OF YOU!" Everyone in the room was then focused on him. "Please don't start fighting. I don't want anymore of us to die because we couldn't stay together. We are a family! We are supposed to love and care for each other. Please!" Jaina felt humbled by her younger cousin, while Mara felt a sense of pride seeing such maturity from her son.

"I understand," Jaina said weakly, feeling as though the Han Solo in her got the good of her again. "I just…" the ship started to shake and the lights blinked off and on. The trio leapt into running positions and made their to the cockpit, with Ben reaching it first, with his cousin and mother right behind him, along with the small droid. He climbed up on top of the console to get as close to the top window as possible, while Jaina and Mara leaned forward to look themselves. Above them, the gigantic frame of a sort of cargo freighter moved into view, along with the red glow of a searchlight emanating from the new ship's hull.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Jaina whispered.

"Do you think they're good guys or bad guys?" Ben asked to anyone who was willing to answer.

"I can't tell," Mara responded. "Might be pirates or simple merchants. So…" she paused. "I sense a familiar presence. It might… might be help. But we shouldn't take any chance." The Falcon began to shake again. This time, with a slight tilt, throwing the four off balance a little bit. "Tractor beam. They want to board us. Come on." Mara headed back to the main hall, with the two youngsters following her. "Freighter that size, we won't be able to make a stand, even with my power." She began to brainstorm. "Jaina," she turned to face her niece, "your father still has those secret compartments in here. We could hide in there."

"But what if they decide to stay and take the ship with them?" Jaina asked.

Ben was thinking about offering out a suggestion, but part of him felt that his cousin and mother already had a good plan, and he didn't want to look like dead weight. However, he would still would have looked that way if he didn't do anything at all. So he nervously said, "We could…"

"We'll figure something out," Mara answered to Jaina seeming unaware of her son wanting to get involved. He always hated when his family would do that. It made him feel like a child, which he technically was, but he didn't wish to be. "If they just inspecting, we'll wait them out. If they try to steal the ship, I'll deal with them."

"You will?"

"I have a lifetime of combat experience, and I'm not letting anyone hurt either of you." Then the ship bumped again, indicating that they had landed in the freighter's hangar. "Come on," Mara commanded to Jaina and Ben, prompting the group to dash toward the looping hallway circling the middle of the ship, they lifted the lids off the floors to expose the compartments that Han would still use to this day to smuggle cargo. He even smuggled himself in them when he rescued Leia, Jaina's mother, from the Death Star. The trio and the small droid hop inside, before Ben asks, "Jaina, you didn't happen to store any blasters in here before hand?" This prompted Jaina out of her hole in the floor and responded with, "actually, I think I might have, check the locker next to the engine room." Ben rushed to his destination following. "And hurry!" Jaina continued. Ben quickly found it and grabbed and blaster rifle for Jaina and a pistol for him. He didn't bother getting one for his mother because she already had her lightsaber. He ran straight back, and handed Jaina the blaster and hopped into the compartment where Mara was waiting for him, right before the wall clanked hard. "They're boarding us, hurry." They swiftly placed the floor lids back in place, where they awaited the arrival of the boarding party.

They could hear the hatch open and apparently two figures bursting in. One of them had rather heavy footstep. Then one of them spoke, revealing his very familiar voice.

He simply said, "Lowie, we found her."


End file.
